· West Point. ,,Total............... .......... $35,469,000 00 if Includes heads of repair and ordnance...

. | 22 $7,200,000 00 of this are for the purchase of Alaska,

A Bill relating to the Freedmen's Bureau and I become entitled to representation in Congress

Providing for its Discontinuance. pursuant to the acts of Congress in that behalf: Be it enacted, &c., That the duties and powers | Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be of commissioner of the bureau for the relief of construed to apply to any State which was repres freedmen and refugees shall continue to be dis- sented in Congress on the 4th day of March, 1967. charged by the present commissioner of the bu- July 20~The PRESIDENT sent a veto, of which reau, and in case of a vacancy in said office these are the most important paragraphs : occurring by reason of his death or resignation,

egionation "The mode and manner of receiving and countthe same shall be filled by appointment of the ing the electoral votes for President and Vice President, on the nomination of the Secretary of President of the United States are in plain and War, and with the advice and consent of the simple terms prescribed by the Constitution. Senate; and no officer of the army shall be de That instrument imperatively requires that the tailed for service as commissioner, or shall enter

President of the Senate “shall, in the presence upon the duties of commissioner, unless appointed of the Senate and House of Representatives, by and with the advice and consent of the open all the certificates, and the votes shall then Senate; and all assistant commissioners, agents, I be counted.” Congress has, therefore, no power, clerks, and assistants shall be appointed by the under the Constitution, to receive the electoral Secretary of War, on the nomination of the com- votes or reject them. The whole power is ex. missioner of the bureau. In case of vacancy in hausted when, in the presence of the two Houses, the office of commissioner happening during the the votes are counted and the result declared recess of the Senate, the duties of the commis In this respect the power and duty of the Presioner shall be discharged by the acting assistant

sident of the Senate are, under the Constitution. adjutant general of the bureau until such va- purely ministerial. When, therefore, the joint cancy can be filled.

resolution declares that no electoral votes shall SEC. 2. That the commissioner of the bureau be received or counted from States that, since shall, on the 1st day of January next, cause the 4th of March, 1867, have not "adopted a the said bureau to be withdrawn from the several constitution or State government under which States within which said bureau has acted, and f a State government shall have been organized," its operations shall be discontinued. But the a power is assumed which is nowhere delegated educational department of the said bureau, to Congress, unless upon the assumption that and the collection and payment of moneys | the State governments organized prior to the 4th due to soldiers, sailors, and marines, or their

narines, or their of March, 1867, were illegal and void. heirs, shall be continued, as now provided by

"The joint resolution, by implication at least, law, until otherwise ordered by act of Congress : | concedes that these States were States by virtue Provided, however, That the provisions of this of their organization, prior to the 4th of March, scction shall not apply to any State which shall I

1867, but denies to them the right to vote in the not, on the 1st of January next, be restored to election of President and Vice President of tho its former political relations with the Govern

United States. It follows either that this asment of the United States, and be entitled to

sumption of power is wholly unauthorized by representation in Congress.

the Constitution, or that the States so excluded Passed both Houses.

from voting were out of the Union by reason of the rebellion, and have never been legitimately

restored. Being 'fully satisfied that they were Joint Resolution excluding from the Electoral I never out of the Union, and that their relatione

College Votes of States lately in Rebellion | thereto have been legally and constitutionally which shall not have been Reorganized.

restored, I am forced to the conclusion that the Resolved, &c., That none of the States whose joint resolution which deprives them of the right inhabitants were lately in rebellion shall be to have their vote for President and Vice Preentitled to representation in the electoral col. sident received and counted is in conflict with lege for the choice of President or Vice Presi- the Constitution, and that Congress has no dent of the United States, nor shall any electoral more power to reject their votes than those of votes be received or counted from any of such the States which have been uniformly loyal to States, unless at the time prescribed by law | the Federal Union. for the choice of electors the people of such “It is worthy of remark that if the States State, pursuant to the acts of Congress in that whose inhabitants were recently in rebellion behalf, shall have, since the 4th day of March, were legally and constitutionally organized and 1867, adopted a constitution of State govern-restored to their rights prior to the 4th of March, ment, under which a State government shall have 1867, as I am satisfied they were, the only legiti. been organized and shall be in operation; nor mate authority under which the election for unless such election of electors shall have been President and Vice President can be held thereheld under the authority of such constitution in must be derived from the governments insti. and government, and such State shall have also | tuted before that period.

118

Woodward-36.

"! It clearly follows that all the State govern: |date of the 4th of July, 1868, and was tranet ments organized in those States under acts mitted by and under the name of W. W. Holof Congress for that purpose, and under military den, who therein writes himself Governor of control, are illegitimate and of no validity what- North Carolina; which paper certifies that the ever; and, in that view, the votes cast in those said proposed amendment, known as article States for President and Vide President, in pur- XIV, did pass the Senate and House of Represuance of acts passed since the 4th of March, sentatives of the General Assembly of North 1867, and in obedience to the so-called recon- Carolina on the second day of July instant, and struction acts of Congress, cannot be legally re- is attested by the names of John H. Boner or ceived and counted; while the only votes in Bower, as secretary of the House of Representthose States that can be legally cast and counted atives, and T. Ai Byrnes, as secretary of the will be those cast in pursuance of the laws in Senate, and its ratification on the 4th of July, force in the several States prior to the legislation 1868, is attested by Tod R. Caldwell as Lieutenby Congress upon the subject of reconstruction.” ant Governor, president of Senate, and J. W.

Same day-The bill re-passed the SENATE- Holden as speaker of House of Representa yeas 45, nays 8, as follow:

By the President: Proclamation of President Johnson respecting WM. H. SEWARD, the Ratification of the XIVth Amendment by

Secretary of State.' Florida and North Carolina, July 11, 1868.

Whereas by an act of Congress, entitled "An Certificate of Mr. Secretary Soward respecting act to admit the States of North Carolina. South! the Ratification of the Fourteenth Amend. Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, andl ment to the Constitution, July 20, 1868. Florida to representation in Congress," passed William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the on the 25th of June, 1868, it is declared that it United States, to all to whom these presents is made the duty of the President within ten | may come, greeting: . days after receiving official information of the Whereas the Congress of the United States, ratification by the legislature of either of said on or about the sixteenth of June, in the year States of a proposed ataendment to the Consti- one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, .tution known as article XIV, to issue a procla- passed a resolution which is in the words and mátion announcing that fact;

figures following, to wit: And whereas the said act seems to be pro- [For text of XIVth Amendment, see page 68 spective; ...

of Manual of 1867, or 194 of the combined ManAnd whereas a paper, púrporting to be a reso- ual.] . lution of the Legislature of Florida, adopting And whereas by the second section of the act the amendment of the XIIIth and XIVth arti- of Congress, approved the twentieth of April, cles of the Constitution of the United States, one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, entiwas received at the Department of State on the tled "An act to provide for the publication of 16th of June, 1868, prior to the passage of the the laws of the United States, and for other act of Congress referred to, which paper is at-purposes," it is made the duty of the Secretary tested by the names of Horatio Jenkins, Jr., als of State forthwith to cause any amendment to president pro tem. of the Senate, and w. w. the Constitution of the United States, which has Moore as speaker of the Assembly, and of Wil-been adopted according to the provisions of the liam L. Apthoop as secretary of the Senate, and said Constitution, to be published in the newsWilliam Forsyth Bynuni as clerk of the Assem- papers authorized to promulgate the laws, with bly, and which paper was transmitted to the his certificate specifying the States by which the Secretary of State in a letter dated Executive same may have been adopted, and that the same Office, Tallahassee, Florida, June 10, 1868, from has become valid; to all intents and purposes, Harrison Reed, who therein sigas himself Gov as a part of the Constitution of the United error;

States; And whereas, on the 6th day of July, 1868; And whereas neither the act just quoted from, a paper was received by the President, which nor any other law, expressly or by conclusive paper being addressed to the President, beare implication, authorizes the Secretary of State to